Stocks Deepen Losses on Fed's Remarks About Stimulus

NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- Major U.S. equity indices posted deeper losses Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's minutes from its January meeting suggested many officials are open to changing its stimulus program. Fresh data for housing starts and the producer price index already had sent stocks down.

Boeing engineers accepted a new four-year contract, but technical workers voted to authorize a future strike as they rejected the contract offer. The news comes amid Boeing's troubles with the battery on its Dreamliner jets. The company has discovered a fix to the problem, Reuters reported. Shares added 0.2% on Wednesday.

Trade volume was heavy on the New York Stock Exchange at 4.19 billion shares, while it totaled 1.99 billion shares on the Nasdaq. Decliners were ahead of advancing issues by a 3.3-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 3.6-to-1 ratio on the tech-heavy index.

The S&P 500 declined 19 points, or 1.2%, to 1,512. Nasdaq was off 49 points, or 1.5%, to 3,164.

"What you're getting today is just a digestion of mixed data, the fact that the S&P 500 moved 7% so far year-to-date you're getting a little bit of exhaustion as the market awaits more data points," said Drew Nordlicht, managing director at HighTower San Diego.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that U.S. housing starts printed at 890,000 for January, an 8.5% decrease from an upwardly revised 973,000 reported in December. A consensus among analysts was looking for an increase of 914,000.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the January producer price index increased 0.2% month over month. It was better than the December decrease of 0.2%. Consensus among analysts had forecast PPI to rise by 0.3% month over month. Minus food and energy, the index increased 0.2% in January.

The Federal Open Market Committee -- the policy-making wing of the Fed -- met in January, and the minutes released Wednesday said many members were more open to backing away from the current $85 billion in monthly open-ended purchases of longer-term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities.

In early January, the FOMC announced surprise dissension among its members as a few said the central bank's highly accommodative policy should end well before the end of 2013, while others argued its longer-term Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities purchasing programs should conclude by the end of 2013. Still, some said the Fed should continue its highly accommodative policy for the near future.